With wiper blades of this type, the support element is intended to assure the most even distribution of the contact pressure on the window issuing from the wiper arm for the entire wiped field swept by the wiper blade. By means of an appropriate curvature of the unloaded support element--i.e. when the wiper blade does not rest against the window--the ends of the wiping strip, which are completely placed against the window when the wiper blade is operated, are then stressed in the direction toward the window, even if the radii of curvature of spherically curved vehicle windows change with every wiper blade position. The curvature of the wiper blade therefore must be slightly greater than the greatest curvature measured in the wiping field of the window to be wiped. Thus, the support element replaces the expensive support bow construction with two spring rails arranged in the wiping strip, such as is used in conventional wiper blades.
With a known wiper blade of this type (DE-OS 23 44 876), the support element, which is made of plastic and is therefore comparatively thick, is provided with lateral pivot pins, whose common pivot axis lies closer to the window than the strip surface of the support element facing away from the window. This pivot axis is intended to make possible a relative movement between the wiper arm and the wiper blade, which in all operating positions is required for matching the wiping strip to the course of the window, which is overwhelmingly spherically curved, but does not correspond to a section of the surface of a sphere. The thickness of the support element, which is required for reasons of the desired even distribution of the contact pressure, results in a large structural height, which is undesirable because of the air flow conditions present in front of the vehicle window, since the wiping quality is diminished by it, in particular at high driving speeds.